Trip teaches local about basics

     By Tina Allen
     View staff writer
      During a recent youth group meeting, Antonia Barrett heard the words "stretch and go in places that are uncomfortable to make you stronger."
      Soon after, the teen-ager from Summerlin took the message to heart while at a reservation in New Mexico.
      Barrett was selected with 11 other young members from Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church's youth group to take part in Neighbors in Action, a community service project designed for teams of young adults ages 15 to 20. Last year, more than 1,000 young people put in 30,000 hours of service at locations throughout the country, helping those in need.
      Barrett, who will be 16 in August, spent six days in Gallup, N.M., with her group at the Sacred Heart Retreat, helping the poor refurbish their homes, as well as painting, pulling weeds and playing with children. She also directed a play on the parting of the Red Sea.
      "I was very touched. I didn't realize how much the people didn't have, and it made me look as if I was, in a way, selfish, because living in this type of environment, I look at substance more than basics," said Barrett, who will be a junior at Faith Lutheran Junior-Senior High School next fall. "To them, basics such as the family and church are more important to them."
      While there, she met a 12-year-old girl who was in charge of an entire household and caring for her siblings while her parents and 17-year-old brother worked to support the family. She met another family with six children living in a dilapidated trailer.
      "Even though they didn't have much, they gave us so much," Barrett said. "One time the dad said we couldn't go out and pull his weeds unless we ate their burritos. That was touching."
      But stepping out of her comfort zone has never been difficult for Barrett. Her father, Bill Barrett, recalled when his daughter, at age 3, would sit like a statue on the side of the pool and watch him swim, when one day she decided she wanted to put her head under the water. Away the two went, marking the day she started to learn to swim.
      "Wherever she has an interest, once she pursues it, she does well," said her mother, Christine Barrett.
      In fact, Antonia Barrett has a lengthy rŽsumŽ to prove that: She is a member of the National Honor Society; earned varsity letters in fine arts for handbells, basketball and track; was named to the All-Southern Conference Basketball team; earned All-State Academic honors in both track and basketball; was elected junior class president; graduated from Barbizon Modeling School with straight A's and the best photo posing award; and represented her school at the Hugh O'Brien Youth National Leadership Seminar recently staged at UNLV.
      In addition, she was scouted to attend the United States Air Force Academy's National Basketball Congress Invitational in Colorado from July 18 through 27. She also works part-time at Longs Drug Store in Summerlin.
      "She's always been responsible, but in a quiet way, not a very forward way," Christine Barrett said of her daughter, who wants to become a pediatrician. "She gets things done and often times she's surprising us with her accomplishments. We're finding out not right when things happen, but through other people."